Both the original serialization and the subsequent first edition in book form of Great Expectations were issued without illustrations. This marks the first and only time Dickens did not collaborate with an illustrator.

These 21 etchings by Frederick William Pailthorpe (1838-1914) are from the Robson & Kerslake edition from 1885. Pailthorpe was of the 'old school' of book illustrators as represented by George Cruikshank and Hablot Browne. He was a personal friend of Cruikshank whose influence on Pailthorpe's work is obvious.